Front Page Fatality – LynDee Walker

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In the world of the e-book. there are so many choices. How does one start to hunt to find new authors?

frontpageIn my case, a Facebook post by a friend led me to find Front Page Fatality, A Nichelle Clark Headlines in Heels Mystery. Written by LynDee Walker, an award-winning former journalist, this book was everything I wanted it to be and more. How can you pass up reading a book with this awesome cover?

Nichelle Clark, a crime journalist with an obsession with buying gently used designer heels from eBay, is one of the best heroines I have come across in a long time. With an appetite for news that is more than curious, her consistent questioning of developing stories gets her into a lot of trouble.

With multiple murders, an ex-ballplayer colleague, an ailing editor and a mob boss, this novel left me reading it on the app on my phone because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next! This novel made me turn pages faster than I do a James Patterson novel.

Walker’s background provides an accurate setting for the newspaper, providing authenticity to Nichelle’s passion for the story, relationship with her editor Bob and her disdain for Shelby, the girl after her job.

My favorite relationship in the novel was with Bob. As a pseudo-father figure and mentor, Bob always supported Nichelle’s curiosity and need to get to the bottom of the story. As the person who gave Nichelle her first job out of college, he takes pride in her development into the investigative reporter her story leads her to be. Bob also cautions her to be safe as she embarks on her mission to get to the bottom of the story.

I also enjoyed the competition between Shelby and Nichelle. Their dynamic enables the both of them, along with their competing television counterpart, to strive to be the best at all times.

With the development of great characters comes the development of an excellent theme. The theme I enjoyed throughout the novel was trust: trust in your source and trust your gut.  Nichelle takes a lot of risks to get her story based upon trust. It may get her into a lot of trouble and unfortunate situations, but she gets the story and the closure she is looking for.

I cannot wait for the next Headlines in Heels mystery, Buried Leads, to come out in October! I’m glad I discovered this great read from a friend. How do you discover new authors?

Any Duchess Will Do – Tessa Dare

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Well, you gotta love a hero who can’t outwit his mother. She’s rendered him unconscious, determined to see him married and well on his way to having children before her perceived early demise.

When he comes to, he realizes he’s being kidnapped. She’s taking him to the one place where she insists there are plenty of suitable young women. Spindle Cove, widely referred to by his peers as Spinster’s Cover. Generous that she is, his mother has opted to allow him in selecting anyone Tessa Dareof his choosing. Lord Halfod’s mother is somewhat diabolical.

Unfortunately for his mother, he is about to usurp all of her machinations with a plot of his own, when Pauline Simms, a local serving girl walks in at that moment covered in sugar from a mishap at the general store.

Halford’s mother may be diabolical, but he has his own moments and is determined to make her pay. He chooses Pauline. The two strike a bargain in which Halford will pay her an ungodly amount at the end of their month long association where she promises to be the best failure ever. After all, failure is the one success she’s always most excelled.

But fate has other plans for this disastrous liaison. Tessa Dare once again proves how love conquers all.

A very enteraining tale—Kathy L Wheeler

Change of Heart by Jenna Bennett

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Yes, Jenna Bennett finally has a new Savannah Martin novel out! I loved this one. I’ve read every book in the series, but I think this one is my favorite. If you haven’t read the others, you can still start here, but I suggest you start with the first book, A Cutthroat Business, and you’ll be hooked.

When Savannah sees her co-worker, and boss, washing blood from his hands, she’s immediately suspicious, and matters get worse when there’s a connection between him and the open house she’s supposed to host.

We get to delve further into the relationship with Savannah and Rafe in this installment, and suffice it to say, it’s a bit more on the steamy side than the previous novels in this series, but the mystery is well plotted, and the story is a page turner.

From Amazon: It’s late February, just two months after Savannah Martin and Rafael Collier finally worked things out between them, and Rafe is already sneaking out of bed in the wee hours.

Catching fellow realtor Tim Briggs rinsing blood from his hands in the office sink makes for a welcome distraction, and when Tim disappears just as one of his clients is found dead in a nearby park, Savannah throws herself into the investigation with abandon.

But even the murder mystery taking place right under her nose can’t completely distract her from worrying about personal problems. Has Rafe changed his mind about their relationship, or is something else going on? And what are the chances of Savannah coming out of this latest debacle with her life – and her heart – intact?

ALSO IN THIS SERIES

1) A Cutthroat Business
2) Hot Property
3) Contract Pending
4) Close to Home
5) A Done Deal
5.5) Contingent on Approval (holiday novella)

Give Jenna Bennett’s Savannah Martin, real estate mystery series, a try. You won’t be disappointed. She didn’t make the USA Today Bestseller list by accident.

WHAT A MOTHER KNOWS: STORY BEHIND THE STORY

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by guest author Leslie Lehr

LEHRauthorphotoReal life haunted me into writing What A Mother Knows. First, my daughter started crying at night during middle school. I felt helpless. I would lay awake and imagine the worst. I took her to doctors and transferred her to a new school, but then I worried about all the things in Hollywood that I tried to protect her from – even while I was working in the film industry. I used to want my daughter to be president, but now I just wanted her to be safe. I wanted to lock her up until she turned twenty-one.

I started working at home, and wrote an essay about it called “Mommy Wars”. I think all mothers are doing their best even though we go about it differently. Then I wrote an essay called “Parenting Paranoia” that Arianna Huffington excerpted in her book, On Becoming Fearless. But I was still afraid.

Soon after, I had jury duty on a manslaughter case in which two mothers were suing the driver of a car that crashed into a sports bar and killed their sons. The boys were strangers sitting at adjacent tables, and complete opposites, yet we had to help put a dollar sign on the loss these women experienced. Of course, there was no right amount, but it couldn’t be zero, either. And so in the worst of what-ifs, I started worrying about my daughter and how far would I go to protect her.

I wrote the first draft as my MFA thesis, but it was dark and literary and the mom was so scary that I put it aside to write something lighter and more commercial. I wrote my next book, Wife Goes On, then came back to What A Mother Knows. Everything in it was real – the emotions, the setting, even the music. My younger daughter was a teenager then, so the story still haunted me. I pulled it apart and put it back together as a more exciting page-turner with a bigger love story. The mom is really kickass now. We can all live vicariously through her. That’s the fun part.

LEHR_Bookcover_May2013Leslie Lehr
What A Mother Knows, May 2013, Sourcebooks Landmark
www.LeslieLehr.com
www.facebook.com/authorleslielehr
Tw @leslielehr1

Basket Case

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Basket Case

by

Carl Hiaasen

Everybody has bad days… You know, those days when the bastardos have carborundum-ed you. Maybe it involves your boss, a co-worker, or perhaps the barista-in-training when you just want a &#^!% cup of coffee. You get the point. I had such a day and decided that it was time to find a book that can inject a bit of humor in my life. It seemed humor was badly needed. After all, if you can’t laugh at life (or some of the people in it) then what’s the point? I ended up following a recommendation on Amazon for entertaining authors and started reading Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen.

The story involves a former investigative newspaper reporter named Jack Tagger. Jack was relegated to the obituary department following an insulting outburst aimed at the new owner of his small Florida newspaper. Jack’s only creative liberty is writing articles for the more high-profile deaths in the county. As Jack sulks and dreams of his former glory, an ex-hairband rocker named Jimmy Stoma turns up dead in a drowning accident. Jack interviews the widow and soon becomes convinced that Jimmy’s death was not accident. The widow seems more concerned about her upcoming record then with her husband’s passing. Jack tries to convince Emma, his 27 year-old editor, about his feelings about Jimmy’s death but soon finds himself having feelings for her as well. Emma needs a story for the paper, but Jack needs more time. Jack soon finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery, an unplanned love affair and some real danger. Will Jack find the truth behind the death of Jimmy Stoma? Will his romantic interest end his career? Is it too late to win back his role as an investigative reporter? Will the Cubs ever win the world series?

The best part of this book is the humorous language that Carl uses to tell the simple but intriguing story. Carl delivers a bit of dry humor at every turn. Even serious moments seem to evaporate into head shaking laughter. The characters always seem to find themselves in some uncommon yet funny situations. At one point, Jack must use a frozen lizard as a weapon to fight off an intruder! The dialogue between characters is also a treat. Carl blends cliché with self-deprecating humor in a way that makes the characters come alive in their own special way. The book has a little bit of everything that one would expect from an entertaining novel that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It helped me not to take life (and the bastardos) too seriously either. I hope you enjoy it.